Project Esther

Project Esther is a political policy and advocacy initiative launched by The Heritage Foundation in October 2024. The Washington, D.C.-based conservative think tank describes the project as an effort to combat antisemitism, but its principal focus is the American pro-Palestinian movement, including campus organizations, progressive advocacy groups, public officials, academics, and protest participants. The project’s name refers to Esther, the biblical figure traditionally described as saving Persian Jews from destruction. The plan was developed after the October 7, 2023 attacks by Victoria Coates, Robert Greenway, and Daniel Flesch. It characterizes a wide network of pro-Palestinian organizations and their supporters as a “Hamas Support Network” and proposes treating the network as effectively linked to terrorism. Its stated objectives include weakening or dismantling the movement’s institutional support in schools, universities, progressive organizations, and Congress. The project’s materials envision using a combination of executive action, immigration enforcement, litigation, funding decisions, campus discipline, public-pressure campaigns, and law-enforcement cooperation. Among the tactics associated with Project Esther are efforts to identify and discredit organizations and individuals described as supporting Hamas; remove or restrict allegedly supportive curricula; pressure universities and other institutions to dismiss faculty or lose public funding; limit some groups’ access to campuses; pursue civil lawsuits; identify foreign students for possible visa revocation or deportation; and encourage authorities to create deterrent conditions around protests. Leaked fundraising materials also described identifying Wikipedia editors whom the project considered to be abusing their editorial positions. The project identified a group of alleged progressive “masterminds,” including George Soros, Alex Soros, J. B. Pritzker, Angela Davis, Manolo de los Santos, Vijay Prashad, Neville Singham, and Jodie Evans, and named philanthropic organizations and politicians as part of a broader alleged ecosystem. Project Esther is often compared with Project 2025 because both originated from or were associated with Heritage Foundation policy planning and were designed to influence a future conservative administration. The project said that, once a sympathetic presidential administration was in office, it could move quickly and pursue its objectives within two years. Reporting in 2025 found substantial similarities between several Project Esther proposals and actions taken or requested by the second Trump administration, although Heritage representatives said they did not know whether the White House had directly used the document as a guide. The initiative has received backing primarily from evangelical Christian and conservative organizations, including the Family Research Council, Faith and Freedom Coalition, Coalition for Jewish Values, and National Committee for Religious Freedom. It reportedly struggled to secure broad support from major Jewish organizations. Critics have argued that the initiative selectively defines antisemitism as a problem of the political left while failing to address white supremacist and other right-wing antisemitism. They have also accused it of conflating criticism of Israel with terrorism and of using concerns about Jewish safety to justify restrictions on speech, protest, academic freedom, due process, and progressive organizing. Project Esther has additionally been criticized for rhetoric that some observers say echoes antisemitic conspiracy tropes, particularly its depiction of powerful Jewish figures and donors as central “masterminds” of progressive politics. Supporters present the project as a strategy for protecting Jewish communities and countering antisemitic influence in American institutions. Opponents view it primarily as a campaign against Palestinian-rights advocacy and the political left, with possible implications for civil liberties beyond the Israel-Palestine debate. It is a policy blueprint and advocacy program rather than a consumer product or conventional commercial brand.

Project Esther emerged from The Heritage Foundation’s post-October 7 effort to develop a national strategy against antisemitism and pro-Palestinian political organizing. The foundation launched the initiative in October 2024, naming it after the biblical Esther. Its architects were Victoria Coates, Robert Greenway, and Daniel Flesch. The project framed pro-Palestinian groups, campus organizations, progressive nonprofits, and sympathetic politicians as components of a connected “Hamas Support Network.” The plan proposed acting rapidly under a sympathetic presidential administration. Rather than limiting its approach to prosecuting direct support for terrorism, it described a broad campaign involving public messaging, institutional pressure, immigration enforcement, litigation, campus policy, funding decisions, and collaboration with state and federal law enforcement. Its intended targets included universities, faculty members, students, foreign nationals, protest groups, progressive organizations, and politicians. The project also contemplated campaigns to remove allegedly supportive educational materials, restrict campus access, defund institutions, and use civil suits or regulatory tools against organizations. A reported fundraising presentation in early 2025 expanded public knowledge of the plan. It described efforts to identify Wikipedia editors and other information intermediaries, as well as a list of alleged progressive power brokers and philanthropic organizations. Critics said the project’s language relied on conspiratorial depictions of influence and could reproduce antisemitic tropes, especially when discussing Jewish philanthropists and political figures. The plan’s supporters argued that it was necessary to expose networks that normalized or materially supported Hamas. Project Esther became associated with the broader Heritage Foundation policy ecosystem and was frequently compared with Project 2025. Its influence became a subject of renewed scrutiny after reporting in 2025 identified substantial overlap between its recommendations and actions or proposals from the second Trump administration. The project’s architects acknowledged that parallels existed but did not confirm that the administration had formally adopted the blueprint. The initiative’s reception was sharply polarized. It received support from several evangelical and conservative organizations, but reports indicated that it had difficulty building a broad coalition among major Jewish organizations. Critics emphasized that it concentrated on left-wing criticism of Israel and pro-Palestinian activism while omitting or minimizing antisemitism from white supremacist and far-right movements. Civil-liberties advocates, Jewish progressives, academics, and Palestinian-rights organizations argued that the project repackaged political suppression as antisemitism enforcement. As a result, Project Esther is best understood as a contested political program rather than a neutral antisemitism-monitoring institution.

• 2025

  Donor pitch materials reported

  [1]Project Estheren.wikipedia.org

  A leaked presentation reported in January 2025 detailed plans involving universities, protests, lawsuits, immigration consequences, and the monitoring of Wikipedia editors.

• 2025

  Influence on federal policy debated

  [1]Project Estheren.wikipedia.org

  May 2025 reporting identified close parallels between more than half of Project Esther’s proposals and actions or requests associated with the second Trump administration.

• 2024

  Project Esther launched

  [1]Project Estheren.wikipedia.org

  The Heritage Foundation launched Project Esther in October 2024 as a strategy focused on antisemitism and the suppression of pro-Palestinian organizing in the United States.

A conservative policy blueprint and advocacy campaign positioned as an antisemitism-prevention initiative, with a particular emphasis on suppressing or delegitimizing pro-Palestinian activism in American public life.

• Policy and advocacy program · 2024

  Project Esther policy blueprint

  The central offering is a written policy framework rather than a commercial product. It defines a broad “Hamas Support Network” and proposes coordinated government, institutional, legal, immigration, funding, and communications responses against organizations and individuals it associates with pro-Palestinian activism. The framework is designed for implementation by a sympathetic administration and allied civil-society organizations.

• 2025

  Criticism over antisemitic tropes and selective focus

  Commentators and Jewish organizations criticized Project Esther for using rhetoric about powerful Jewish “masterminds” that they said echoed antisemitic conspiracy theories, while focusing almost exclusively on left-wing critics of Israel and failing to address right-wing antisemitism.

  Source

• 2025

  Civil-liberties concerns over repression strategy

  Opponents argued that the project uses legitimate concerns about antisemitism to justify restrictions on protest, speech, academic freedom, due process, immigration rights, and progressive political organizing.

  Source

Read more

• 2025Institutional and campus pressure strategy

  United States

  The project promoted measures to challenge curricula, faculty, student groups, university funding, and campus access where activity was viewed as supportive of Hamas or excessively critical of Israel.

  Outcome. The strategy attracted support from conservative organizations and strong opposition from academic, civil-liberties, Jewish progressive, and Palestinian-rights groups.

  Source
• 2024Hamas Support Network framing campaign

  United States

  Project Esther sought to persuade the public and policymakers that a broad range of pro-Palestinian organizations and activists formed a connected network that threatened American Jews and the United States.

  Outcome. The framing became central to public debate about the initiative, but critics rejected the breadth of its categorization and its equation of criticism of Israel with terrorism.

  Source

• 2025

  Pursue coordinated institutional and legal pressureStrategy

  Background

  The project’s materials anticipated implementation by a politically sympathetic federal administration.

  Action taken

  The plan proposed defunding or pressuring institutions, removing faculty, restricting campus groups, filing civil suits, revoking visas, pursuing deportations, and coordinating with law enforcement.

  Aftermath

  Reports identified substantial parallels between these proposals and actions or requests associated with the second Trump administration, although direct adoption of the blueprint was not confirmed.

  Source

• 2024

  Define pro-Palestinian activism as a national-security networkStrategy

  Background

  The project was created amid heightened political conflict over antisemitism, Israel, Gaza, and American campus protests after the October 7 attacks.

  Action taken

  Project Esther classified a broad collection of pro-Palestinian groups and supporters as an effectively terrorist-supporting network and proposed dismantling its institutional base.

  Aftermath

  The definition became the foundation for proposed measures involving universities, immigration, litigation, public funding, and law enforcement.

  Source

1. 1Project Estheren.wikipedia.org